Barnes & Noble To Shut Down Its Nook App And Video Stores, But Will Continue Selling eBooks In The US

Well you can't say they didn't give it a good try. After years of attempting to break into the lucrative tablet market with its own semi-exclusive platform, US bookseller Barnes & Noble plans to halt digital sales on its app and video stores. Diginomica reports that the company will stop sales on March 15th (Tuesday), and that customers who've bought content from either location have until then to download their apps and videos one last time. Connecting Nook Video content to accounts for either Disney Movies Anywhere or CinemaNow will allow customers to retain streaming and download rights on other platforms.

Of course the Nook hardware line, even the more elaborate models with high-resolution color screens and respectable specifications, have always been focused on text content first. The US version of the Nook digital bookstore isn't going anywhere, at least for the time being, and it will continue to be available on such Nook hardware as remains and via an array of cross-platform apps. Customers in the United Kingdom aren't so lucky: Barnes & Noble is handing over its digital bookstore to local retailer Sainsbury's, which will issue either free copies or digital vouchers to Nook customers who transfer their accounts.

Apps and videos from the Barnes & Noble store were previously available on more or less all Nook-branded tablets, going all the way back to the original Nook Color, one of the first Android-powered tablets on the market. But the writing was on the wall for the larger nook platform as soon as Amazon decided to enter the low-cost tablet arena with its Kindle Fire series, which continues to sell well thanks to low prices and Amazon's behemoth marketing and online retail presence. B&N tried to fight back by allowing the Google Play Store on its branded hardware, but the company halted manufacturing in 2013 and now only sells Nook-branded Samsung tablets in its retail stores. Barnes & Noble continues to lose ground in both hardware and content sales.